The Cloud's Dark Side

While I really enjoy using cloud services like Evernote, Gmail, Remember the Milk, Google Reader, Delicious, and (of course) Blogger, I am left worried about my reliance on these services.  I have invested a lot of time and information into these services and rely on continual access to this information.  What would happen if any of these cloud services were dropped and I no longer had access to my information?

These services are not guaranteed and history has proven these cloud services do disappear. Google Wave, Jump, Broadcast, and Google Notebook are failed cloud services I used to rely upon but have since disappeared (along with my information).  This has caused me to be weary of my reliance on cloud services.  However, I continue to depend upon these services for the convenient access and centralized data storage.

Will I continue to be disappointed by failed cloud services and disruptions in my use of these tools?  Probably, but I still find them to be so useful I'm willing to assume the risk.  The future may offer more stability as firms define better business plans for these cloud services.  There may continue to be failed services but I think this will lessen in the future.  I may loose access in the future and I will adjust; just don't take away my Evernote!

Contrasting Views on Cloud Computing

This week in the MBA class that I teach we will be discussing the use of cloud computing.  In preparation for this lecture I have been doing a little research to be able discuss the management issues associated with this newer technology.  As I was reading through some of the literature it became very clear the differences between academia and the business world.  These differences need to be realized when considering technologies like cloud computing in the business context.

In academia we are very concerned with student privacy and privacy of participants involved in our research.  Our student records are secured in our information systems and we are careful when working with student-related information.  Additionally, we take efforts to protect the participants and their information in our research.  However, the student and participant information is a very small component of the information faculty deal with.  Most of the information we spend time with is centered around the literature we use in our research and preparing for our courses.  This information, unlike student and participant information, is not as sensitive.  As a result, we commonly view information as open and don't have significant concerns over unauthorized access to our information.  In fact, quite often, we prefer to store this information in locations where others may share in the benefits of our discovery of new knowledge.

This way of thinking is different than in the business world where knowledge offers a strategic advantage and must be protected from potential competitors.  In the business world, protection of this knowledge is a primary concern and sharing with individuals outside of the organization is not commonly practiced.  Business knowledge must be protected and, therefore, its distribution must be controlled.

These two contrasting viewpoints strongly influence the perspective of cloud computing.  Academics may favor cloud computing because of the reduced costs, the ability to easily share knowledge with the world, and the broader access to a wide range of tools available from any Internet connection.  The business environment may also like the lower costs and availability of the services but are deeply aware of the potential security issues as well as many ownership and integration issues.

The contrasting views of cloud computing is just one example where the academic world differs from the business world.  We must remember differences exist and be aware of these differences as we prepare students to apply technologies in their workplace.  Although we may not always be aware of the differences, our students will and our students should be engaged in a discussion on potential issues with application of technologies in their workplace.  Our role must be to facilitate this thought, listen, and learn.

RSS Feeds or Printed Publications

I have been adding more and more RSS feeds to my reader and have enjoyed reading from so many different sources.  I find this a great way to get a broad perspective on the topics of interest to me.  It is also convenient way to read since I can read these RSS feeds from my desktop, iPhone, iPad.

I also try to keep up-to-date on the paper subscriptions I receive.  These journals and professional magazines are filled with great articles but not all of the topics are specific to my areas of interest within IT.  Also, there are so many publications I receive that I'm having a tough time keeping up.  Right now I have a stack of 10 print publications on my office table waiting for me to read.  I want to read these articles but I don't always have them with me.

I value the print publications because they offer new insights by sources I may not have added in my RSS feeds.  I also enjoy the advertisements because they help me see the latest products, issues and trends in the field.  I only wish I was able to have these subscriptions through my iPad.  One of my subscriptions (PM Network) does offer an iPad application so I'm able to read the articles through the iPad.  As a result, I often spend more time reading this subscription than I do my other subscriptions.  I certainly hope publishers soon begin embracing the new digital formats to distribute their publications.  While print publications are great, they are not always with me the way my digital copies are.

I value my access to the RSS feeds but see this source of information as too narrow (reliant on my choice of feeds) as opposed to the broader coverage offered in printed publications.  I certainly hope to see these printed publications continue to move to the digital format and continue to provide the broad coverage they currently offer.

Evolution of Computing

Yesterday during a conversation with one of my grad students, we discussed the evolution of computing and the movement from centralized computing to distributed client server and now back to centralized systems.  This shift is commonly referred to as the pendulum swinging between centralized and decentralized architecture.  However, the student noted a reference to this phenomena as a spiral rather than a pendulum swing.  The explanation was the pendulum infers going back to an original state.  In this case, shifts back to centralized computing have resulted in a similar architecture but different than the original state.

I like the spiral model for describing what is occurring with the fluctuation in system architectures.  We began with the centralized mainframe, migrated to distributed client server, moved to centralized web pages, and then shifted to decentralized AJAX web applications.  These changes demonstrated an oscillation between centralized and decentralized architectures but also resulted in improvements over the deficiencies of prior architectures.

What I find interesting now is the increasing use of apps.  These apps we run on our devices are the equivalent of the decentralized client sever architecture.  We have migrated back to distributing the processing load and creating applications that run on each individual client.  However, in this latest iteration of distributed architecture, we now have better means of disseminating the latest edition of the software.  The apps stores have the ability to push out upgrades to these apps which is far superior to the old client server architecture which required manual installations at each workstation for each upgrade.

It will be interesting to see where we end up as the spiral continues to oscillate between centralized and decentralized architectures.

Another Use for Evernote

I am a big fan of Evernote.  I tried out this product a few years ago and have been using it diligently ever since.  I use it to track anything that I want to remember later on and I recently found a new use for Evernote.

Last week I began using Evernote to capture my notes from my literature research.  In the past, I used EndNote but found that I ended up looking at Evernote for some information and EndNote for literature research; my information was located in too many places.  In order to consolidate the location for my information I created a new Evernote notebook in my account to keep track of all of these literature references.  When I come across a new source I create a new note for the source, copy the citation and abstract to the note, and then add my own comments to the note.

Using Evernote's search functionality, I will be able to easily find a source based on my notes, citation, or the abstract.  Also, I can also use the tagging function in Evernote to associate keywords or the research topic to my note.  With Evernote, I should be able to mimic the functionality offered by EndNote but have the advantage of conducting search across all of my information; I won't have to search EndNote AND Evernote.